The game's storyline concerns a legendary vampire named Elizabeth Bartley, who is Dracula's niece, suddenly appearing in the 20th century. Plotting a sacrificial war in order to bring her uncle back to life, she orchestrates the beginning of World War I. Quincy Morris' son, John, and his best friend Eric Lecarde, vow to take up the fight against evil. Together they manage to prevent Dracula's full resurrection.

Contents

As with most early Castlevania games, players proceed through each level, defeating enemies and collecting gems (hearts in previous games) to power special weapons (in this game, the axe, boomerang, and holy water), each stage is sectioned, and has a sub-boss battle in the middle, with a main boss battle at the end. Some items will increase the power of the characters' weapons, some portions of the game split into different paths, depending on which character is chosen. John is able to swing past huge gaps with his whip, whereas Eric must use a different route by performing high jumps by using his spear.

Bloodlines is also noteworthy for its abundance of special effects, such as the Atlantis Shrine's water reflections, the swaying tower of Pisa, and large multi-jointed bosses, the final stage even uses effects to add challenge, such as playing upside-down or playing while the screen divides up into sections. The "Item Crash" feature (from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood) makes its return in Bloodlines.

Artwork used for the cover of the Japanese, European and Australian versions

In 1897, the long war between humanity and Dracula came to an end, as Dracula was laid to eternal rest by Quincey Morris, a distant descendant of the Belmont family. Peace was restored to Europe, until the outbreak of the First World War, which transformed the continent into a dark world filled with massacre and violence, at the beginning of the war, in June 1914 at Sarajevo, the Crown Prince of Austria was assassinated. It was said that a strange beautiful woman was involved, within the shadows, it was Elizabeth Bartley. In order to revive her uncle, Count Dracula, she conducted an unholy ceremony which caused the war, giving her possession of human souls from Europe.

The game itself takes place in 1917, the characters are John Morris, a distant descendant of the famed Belmont and Morris families who obeyed his fate to fight vampires day and night, and Eric Lecarde, whose girlfriend was transformed into a vampire when Elizabeth was revived. After Drolta Tzuentes resurrected Elizabeth Bartley, they traveled across Europe to conduct the resurrection of Count Dracula. John Morris and Eric Lecarde followed them. Even though the resurrection of Dracula was a success, the vampire hunters defeated him, and his allies.

The game was originally released as a side story of Castlevania series.[1] Eric's facial features were more feminine (i.e., bishōnen) in the Japanese version. When brought to North America, his facial design was changed in the intro to seem more masculine. Oddly, although also changed for the European and Australian versions intro, his feminine face was kept for the cover of those releases.

Castlevania: Bloodlines underwent censorship during localization to PAL regions in Europe and Australia. The word blood was kept out of the title at the time. Therefore, the title was altered to Castlevania: The New Generation. When the game starts, the blood from the bottom of the title screen was changed to water. Another thing that was changed for the title screen is that the North American and Japanese versions had blood dripping effects from the title to the blood pool, but in the European version, the title screen just faded in through pixelated text and had no blue water dripping effect, the zombies were changed from pink to green to make them less gruesome. In the European version, Eric's spear does not impale him after he dies. There was a rearrangement of enemy placement as well, making the difficulty either easier or harder depending on where in the game the player is. Only some sub-bosses use the life bar meter to show damage, whereas others do not.

The packaging artwork for the North American version was created by Tom Dubois, who also designed the packaging for many other Konami titles outside Japan.[2]

The main themes for each of the first levels of the three NES Castlevania games (Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears, Beginning) are accessible in-game with a code, can be played in the sound test and one will be chosen randomly to play when the player obtains the maximum weapon power level. Also, Nothing to Lose (the Castle Keep theme for the NES Castlevania) was played in the final part of the first stage. Theme of Simon (from Super Castlevania IV) plays after defeating Elizabeth and before the battle with Dracula.

Bloodlines was an "instant hit" upon release.[5]GamesRadar named Castlevania: Bloodlines the 8th best Genesis game of all time out of a list of 25.[6]Game Informer's Tim Turi praised the level of gore relative to other Castlevania titles at the time. He also called it "one of the most overlooked treasures in the franchise."[7]GameZone ranked it as the fourth best Castlevania title.[5]

Konami
–
Konami Holdings Corporation is a Japanese entertainment company. It operates as a distributor, which produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines and arcade cabinets. It also operates health and physical fitness clubs across Japan, Konami is the twentieth-largest game company in the world by revenue. The company was found

Video game programmer
–
A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines, all of which fall under the term of game programmer. A game programmer should not be confused with a game designer, in th

1.
The Apple II series was a popular video game platform during the early home computer era. Despite being outperformed by later systems, it remained popular until the early 1990s.

2.
The joystick was the primary input device for 1980s era games. Now game programmers must account for a wide range of input devices, but the joystick today is supported in relatively few games, though still dominant for flight simulators.

Video game music
–
Video game music is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was limited to simple melodies of early sound synthesizer technology. With advances in technology, video game music has now grown to include the same breadth and complexity associated with television and film scores, while simple synthesizer pieces are still com

Michiru Yamane
–
Michiru Yamane is a Japanese video game composer and pianist. She is known primarily for her work in the Castlevania series and her debut project was Kings Valley II. She left Konami in 2008, and became a freelance composer, Yamane performed music from the Castlevania series live on cembalo and – as a surprise act – on pipe organ at the Symphonic G

1.
Michiru Yamane

Castlevania
–
The series debuted in Japan on September 26,1986, with the release for the Family Computer Disk System, followed by an alternate version for the MSX2 platform on October 30. The series became one of Konamis main series, though it has remained stagnant ever since 2014 with no new entries underway, the Castlevania titles have been released on various

1.
Screenshot of Castlevania on the NES.

Computing platform
–
Computing platform means in general sense, where any piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the system, even a web browser or other application. The term computing platform can refer to different abstraction levels, including a hardware architecture, an operating system. In total it can be said to be the stage on which programs ca

Sega Genesis
–
The Sega Genesis, known as the Mega Drive in most regions outside of North America, is a 16-bit home video game console which was developed and sold by Sega Enterprises, Ltd. The Genesis was Segas third console and the successor to the Master System, Sega first released the console as the Mega Drive in Japan in 1988, followed by a North American de

3.
An edition of the original model of Genesis, known as the Genesis III, was the model at the center of Sega v. Accolade for its incorporation of the Trademark Security System (TMSS)

4.
European Mega Drive mainboard

North America
–
North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Car

Japan
–
Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referr

PAL region
–
The PAL region is a television publication territory that covers most of Asia, Africa, Europe, South America and Oceania. It is so named because of the PAL television standard used in those regions, as opposed to the NTSC standard traditionally used in Japan. Most video games designated as part of the region will not play on NTSC-U/C or NTSC-J regi

1.
Television system by country. Countries using the PAL system are shown in blue.

Platform game
–
A Platform game is a video game which involves guiding an avatar to jump between suspended platforms and/or over obstacles to advance the game. The player controls the jumps to avoid letting the avatar fall from platforms or miss necessary jumps, the most common unifying element of games of this genre is the jump button, but now there are other alt

1.
Jumping Flash, the first 3D platformer on a console, had free-roaming environments in 1995.

Vampire
–
A vampire is a being from folklore who subsists by feeding on the life essence of the living. In European folklore, vampires were undead beings that often visited loved ones and they wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from todays gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th c

Dracula
–
Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula. Dracula has been assigned to many genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel. Stoker did not invent the vampire but he defined its modern form, and the novel has spawned numerous theatrica

1.
The cover of the first edition

2.
Stoker's handwritten notes on the personnel of the novel

3.
Shakespearean actor and friend of Stoker's, Sir Henry Irving was a possible real-life inspiration for the character of Dracula. The role was tailor-made to his dramatic presence, gentlemanly mannerisms and affinity for playing villain roles. Irving, however, never agreed to play the part on stage.

4.
1899 first American edition, Doubleday & McClure, New York.

20th century
–
The 20th century was a century that began on January 1,1901 and ended on December 31,2000. It was the tenth and final century of the 2nd millennium and it is distinct from the century known as the 1900s, which began on January 1,1900 and ended on December 31,1999. It saw great advances in communication and medical technology that by the late 1980s

World War I
–
World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts i

Miniboss
–
In video gaming, a boss is a significant computer-controlled enemy. A fight with a character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. A boss enemy is quite larger in size than other enemies. Most commonly, bosses are very hard or impossible to defeat without knowing the correct fighting approach, Bosses take strategy and special know

1.
A boss fight from Guacamelee, in which the player characters (the two characters in luchador outfits) must keep ahead of the giant rampaging creature from the left while dodging obstacles and other enemies

Hellhound
–
A hellhound is a supernatural dog in folklore. A wide variety of ominous or hellish supernatural dogs occur in mythologies around the world, features that have been attributed to hellhounds include mangled black fur, glowing red eyes, super strength or speed, ghostly or phantom characteristics, and a foul odor. Certain European legends state that i

2.
The title character in Charlotte Brontë 's 1847 novel Jane Eyre is reminded of a Gytrash when she first sees Mr Rochester's black horse Mesrour and his black and white dog Pilot. Illustration by F. H. Townsend for the second edition of the book.

Romania
–
Romania is a sovereign state located in Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and it has an area of 238,391 square kilometres and a temperate-continental climate. With over 19 million inhabitants, the country is the member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth-

Europe
–
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europ

3.
A medieval T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of Noah — Asia to Sem (Shem), Europe to Iafeth (Japheth), and Africa to Cham (Ham)

4.
Early modern depiction of Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical Europa of the 8th century BC.

Athens
–
Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce,

Greece
–
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan pe

Pisa
–
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its tower, the city of over 90,834 residents contains more than 20 other historic churches, several medieval palaces. Much of the architecture was financed from it

1.
Pisa

2.
Coat of arms

3.
Hypothetical map of Pisa in the 5th century AD

4.
Hypothetical map of Pisa in the 11th century AD

Italy
–
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is refe

Germany
–
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular

Palace of Versailles
–
The Palace of Versailles, Château de Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. Versailles is therefore not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime. First built by Louis XIII in 1623, as a lodge of brick and stone. The first phase of t

France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territ

1.
One of the Lascaux paintings: a horse – Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC

England
–
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
–
Castlevania, Rondo of Blood, known in Japan as Akumajō Dracula X, Chi no Rondo, is a platform-adventure video game developed by Konami for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² System directed by Toru Hagihara. It is set in the universe of the Castlevania series, where the protagonist Richter Belmont goes to save his lover Annette. It was released in Japan o

1.
Japanese box art

Sarajevo
–
Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its current administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area, including Sarajevo Canton and East Sarajevo is home to 688,384 inhabitants, nestled within the greater Sarajevo valley of Bosnia, it is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated alo

Austria
–
Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying with

1.
First appearance of the word "ostarrichi", circled in red. Modern Austria honours this document, dated 996, as the founding of the nation.

Australia
–
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to t

Software localization
–
In computing, internationalization and localization are means of adapting computer software to different languages, regional differences and technical requirements of a target market. Internationalization is the process of designing a software application so that it can potentially be adapted to various languages, localization is the process of ada

1.
The internationalization and localization process (based on a chart from the LISA website.)

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
–
Castlevania, Symphony of the Night is a platform-adventure action role-playing game developed and published by Konami in 1997 for the PlayStation. It is the sequel to Castlevania, Rondo of Blood and features Draculas dhampir son Alucard as the protagonist and it marks a break from previous games in the series, which are action platformers. The game

1.
European box art by Ayami Kojima

2.
Gameplay in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, with Alucard, the primary character, in the center

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
–
Castlevania, Circle of the Moon, known simply as Castlevania in the PAL region, is a video game created by Konami only for the Game Boy Advance. Circle of the Moon focuses on Nathan Graves and his quest to rescue his mentor from Dracula. It is the last Castlevania game to use the original logo. Circle of the Moon makes use of a 2D side-scrolling st

1.
North American box art

Game Boy Advance
–
The Game Boy Advance is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21,2001, in North America on June 11,2001, in Australia and Europe on June 22,2001, and in the Peoples Republic of China on June 8,2004. Nintendos competitors in the

1.
1st generation Game Boy Advance

2.
The Wireless Adapter was packed in with Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen

Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
–
A large part of the games challenge is based on jumping from platform to platform while avoiding environmental hazards, such as enemies and traps. Platforms are usually stationary, but some may rotate out from under the player, move through the environment like a rail shooter, there are also some invisible platforms that either afford players a str

Nintendo 64
–
The Nintendo 64, stylized as the NINTENDO64 and often referred to as the N64, is Nintendos third home video game console for the international market. It was the last major home console to use the cartridge as its primary storage format until Nintendos seventh console, while the Nintendo 64 was succeeded by Nintendos MiniDVD-based GameCube in Septe

Super Castlevania IV
–
Super Castlevania IV is a platform game developed and published by Konami and the first Castlevania game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was released in 1991 and later re-released on the Virtual Console in 2006 for the Wii, in 2013 for the Wii U. It features expanded play control, 16-bit graphics featuring SNES Mode 7, followi

1.
North American SNES box art

GameRankings
–
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games, GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive. Similar websites include GameStats, Metacritic, MobyGames, and TopTenReviews, GameRankings collects and links to re

1.
GameRankings

GamesRadar
–
GamesRadar+ is an entertainment website primarily featuring video game related news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides. Since November 2014 the site has included a TV, films and sci-fi section, bringing in content from Futures entertainment brands Total Film. It is owned and operated in the UK and US by worldwide publisher Future plc, GamesRada

1.
GamesRadar

Game Informer
–
Game Informer is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, the publication is owned and published by GameStop Corp. the parent company of the video game retailer of the same name, who

1.
The July 2011 issue cover

2.
Game Informer covers circa 2005

MobyGames
–
MobyGames is a commercial website which catalogs video games both past and present. As of October 2016, this includes over 200 gaming platforms and over 114,000 games, the site is supported by banner ads and by users paying to become patrons. The MobyGames database contains information on games and the people. Some individual developer profiles hav

1.
MobyGames' old official logo

Castlevania (1986 video game)
–
Castlevania, known in Japan as Akumajou Dracula, is an action-platformer video game developed and published by Konami for the Family Computer Disk System video game console in Japan in September 1986. It was ported to cartridge format and released in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System in May 1987 followed by a European release in 1

1.
North American NES box art

Vampire Killer
–
Vampire Killer, known as Akumajō Dracula in Japan, is a platform-adventure game produced by Konami and released in 1986 for the MSX2 computer platform in Japan and Europe. It was in development around the time as the Nintendo Entertainment System game Castlevania. The MSX2 version of Akumajō Dracula was released in Japan on October 30,1986 and it w

1.
European box art

Haunted Castle (video game)
–
Haunted Castle, known as Akumajō Dracula in Japan, is the first arcade game in the Castlevania series, released by Konami in 1988. It was later re-released on the PlayStation 2 exclusively in Japan, the game follows the vampire hunter Simon Belmont as he goes to rescue his wife Selena from Dracula. Haunted Castle is a platform game with six levels,

1.
Japanese arcade flyer

Castlevania: The Adventure
–
Castlevania, The Adventure, known as Dracula Densetsu in Japan, is a platform game released for the Game Boy in 1989. It is the first Castlevania title for the system, Castlevania, The Adventure was re-released in color as part of the Konami GB Collection compilations in Japan and Europe. A remake titled Castlevania, The Adventure ReBirth was relea

1.
North American box art

Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth
–
Castlevania, The Adventure ReBirth is a side-scrolling action platform game developed by M2, and released by Konami for the Wii in 2009 as a WiiWare title. It is currently available in Japan, North America, Europe, based on the 1989 Game Boy title Castlevania, The Adventure, it is the third game in M2s ReBirth series, following Gradius ReBirth and

1.
Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth

Castlevania Chronicles
–
Castlevania Chronicles, released in Japan as Castlevania Chronicle, Akumajō Dracula, is a platform video game developed by Konami for the PlayStation. It is a port of a game released for the Sharp X68000 home computer in 1993 as simply Akumajō Dracula. This Castlevania Chronicles port adds a number of features, including an Arranged Mode for new pl

1.
Castlevania Chronicles

Castlevania Legends
–
Castlevania Legends, released in Japan as Akumajō Dracula, Dark Night Prelude is the third and final Castlevania title released for the original Game Boy. It was released in Japan on November 27,1997 and in North America on March 11,1998, as with many Game Boy titles after 1994, Legends has some enhancements when played on the Super Game Boy. A pla

1.
North American box art

2.
Gameplay

Castlevania (1999 video game)
–
It was released in North America on January 26,1999, in Japan on March 11,1999, and in Europe on May 14,1999. Castlevania is the first 3D game in the Castlevania series, the player selects one of the games protagonists to control, Carrie Fernandez, a young orphan gifted with magic powers, or Reinhardt Schneider, the whip-wielding heir to the Belmon

1.
Koji Igarashi is credited with establishing defining features of the Metroidvania genre.

2.
In Guacamelee!, the player gains the ability to temporarily turn their human character into a chicken, allowing them to pass through short corridors and discover secrets.

List of Castlevania media

1.
Logo of the Castlevania series

LIST OF IMAGES

1.
Konami
–
Konami Holdings Corporation is a Japanese entertainment company. It operates as a distributor, which produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines and arcade cabinets. It also operates health and physical fitness clubs across Japan, Konami is the twentieth-largest game company in the world by revenue. The company was founded in 1969 as a rental and repair business in Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan, by Kagemasa Kōzuki. The name Konami is a conjunction of the names Kagemasa Kozuki, Yoshinobu Nakama, Konami is currently headquartered in Tokyo. In the United States, Konami manages its video game business from offices in El Segundo, California and its casino gaming business from offices in Paradise and its Australian gaming operations are located in Sydney. As of March 2016, it owns 21 consolidated subsidiaries around the world, March 21,1969 - Kagemasa Kozuki founded a jukebox rental/repair business in Toyonaka, Osaka. March 19,1973 - Kozuki transformed the business into Konami Industry Co. Ltd. and their first actual game machine was not created until 1978, and they began exporting products to the United States the following year. May 1980 - Konami moved their headquarters to Toyonaka, Osaka, March 1981 - The Konami logo was established. A new logo with the name in italics was released in 1986 and was altered in 1998 from italics to Roman text, in 2003, Konami introduced a new logo for the companys 30th anniversary. The company also introduced the new tagline, Bikkuri, which is marketed as Be Creative, October 1982 - Konami began manufacturing and selling PC games. November 1982 - Konami of America, Inc. was established in Torrance, in 2003, Konami of America closed down their arcade division due to heavy losses, the entire Buffalo Grove, Illinois location was shut down along with it. All machine inquiries and new machines would thereafter be handled by Betson Enterprises, as of 2007, Konami Corporation of America has moved its U. S. head office once again from Redwood City to Konami Digital Entertainments office in El Segundo, California. November 1983 - Konami began producing MSX games and they would go on to become one of the most prolific game developer to support the platform during the next seven years, releasing a total of 70 titles on both, the original MSX and the MSX2. Their MSX games included such as Antarctic Adventure, the Knightmare trilogy. Most notably Hideo Kojimas earliest games, the original Metal Gear, Snatcher and Metal Gear 2, may 1984 - Konami Ltd. was established in the United Kingdom. In October 1984, Konami was listed on the Second Section of the Osaka Securities Exchange, subsequent stock listings include Second Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, and the Nikkei Stock Average. In December 1984, Konami GmbH was established in Germany, April 1985 - Konami began manufacturing and selling Family Computer video games

2.
Video game programmer
–
A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines, all of which fall under the term of game programmer. A game programmer should not be confused with a game designer, in the early days of video games, a game programmer also took on the job of a designer and artist. This was generally because the abilities of computers were so limited that having specialized personnel for each function was unnecessary. Technology has advanced to such a degree that contemporary games usually boast 3D graphics. Nowadays, the term programmer art has come to imply the kind of bright colors. The desire for adding depth and assets to games necessitated a division of labor. Initially, art production was relegated to full-time artists, next game programming became a separate discipline from game design. Now, only games, such as the puzzle game Bejeweled, are simple enough to require just one full-time programmer. Despite this division, however, most game developers have some say in the design of contemporary games. Each aspect of the game can consume all of one time and, in many cases. Some programmers may specialize in one area of programming. The number of programmers needed for each feature depends somewhat on programmers skills, Game engine programmers create the base engine of the game, including the simulated physics and graphics disciplines. Increasingly, video games use existing game engines, either commercial and they are often customized for a particular game, and these programmers handle these modifications. A games physics programmer is dedicated to developing the physics a game will employ, typically, a game will only simulate a few aspects of real-world physics. For example, a game may need simulated gravity. Since processing cycles are always at a premium, physics programmers may employ shortcuts that are computationally inexpensive, in other cases, unrealistic physics are employed to allow easier gameplay or for dramatic effect. Sometimes, a subset of situations is specified and the physical outcome of such situations are stored in a record of some sort and are never computed at runtime at all

Video game programmer
–
The Apple II series was a popular video game platform during the early home computer era. Despite being outperformed by later systems, it remained popular until the early 1990s.
Video game programmer
–
The joystick was the primary input device for 1980s era games. Now game programmers must account for a wide range of input devices, but the joystick today is supported in relatively few games, though still dominant for flight simulators.

3.
Video game music
–
Video game music is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was limited to simple melodies of early sound synthesizer technology. With advances in technology, video game music has now grown to include the same breadth and complexity associated with television and film scores, while simple synthesizer pieces are still common, game music now includes full orchestral pieces and popular music. Music in video games can be heard over a title screen, options menu. Today’s soundtracks can also change depending on a player’s actions or situation, Video game music can be one of two options, original or licensed. In order to create or collect this music, teams of composers, music directors, today, original composition has included the work of film composers Harry Gregson-Williams, Trent Reznor, Hans Zimmer, Josh Mancell, Steve Jablonsky, and Michael Giacchino. The popularity of game music has expanded education and job opportunities, generated awards. At the time video games had emerged as a form of entertainment in the late 1970s, music was stored on physical medium in analog waveforms such as compact cassettes. Such components were expensive and prone to breakage under heavy use making them less ideal for use in an arcade cabinet, though in rare cases. Sound effects for the games were also generated in this fashion, an early example of such an approach to video game music was the opening chiptune in Tomohiro Nishikados Gun Fight. The first game to use a background soundtrack was Tomohiro Nishikados Space Invaders. It had four descending chromatic bass notes repeating in a loop, though it was dynamic and interacted with the player, the first video game to feature continuous, melodic background music was Rally-X, released by Namco in 1980, featuring a simple tune that repeats continuously during gameplay. The decision to any music into a video game meant that at some point it would have to be transcribed into computer code by a programmer, whether or not the programmer had musical experience. Some music was original, some was public domain music such as folk songs, Sound capabilities were limited, the popular Atari 2600 home system, for example, was capable of generating only two tones, or notes, at a time. As advances were made in technology and costs fell, a definitively new generation of arcade machines. This was further improved upon by Namcos 1982 arcade game Dig Dug, Dig Dug was composed by Yuriko Keino, who also composed the music for other Namco games such as Xevious and Phozon. Home console systems also had an upgrade in sound ability beginning with the ColecoVision in 1982 capable of four channels. However, more notable was the Japanese release of the Famicom in 1983 which was released in the US as the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985

Video game music
Video game music
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The SNES (1990) brought digitized sound to console games.
Video game music
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The first developers of IBM PC computers neglected audio capabilities (first IBM model, 1981).

4.
Michiru Yamane
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Michiru Yamane is a Japanese video game composer and pianist. She is known primarily for her work in the Castlevania series and her debut project was Kings Valley II. She left Konami in 2008, and became a freelance composer, Yamane performed music from the Castlevania series live on cembalo and – as a surprise act – on pipe organ at the Symphonic Game Music Concert series in Leipzig, Germany in 2006 and 2007. She also performed at Castlevania – The Concert in Stockholm, Sweden in February 2010, twinBee Vendetta 1992 Astérix Wild West C. O. W. for Wii U2016 NightCry 2017 Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom 2018 Bloodstained, Ritual of the Night Official website

Michiru Yamane
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Michiru Yamane

5.
Castlevania
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The series debuted in Japan on September 26,1986, with the release for the Family Computer Disk System, followed by an alternate version for the MSX2 platform on October 30. The series became one of Konamis main series, though it has remained stagnant ever since 2014 with no new entries underway, the Castlevania titles have been released on various platforms, from early systems including the Nintendo Entertainment System to modern consoles. It has also released for Pocket PCs, emulators and mobile phones. He travels to Draculas demonic castle, Castlevania, and fights his way through the castle destroying Dracula himself, Belmonts main weapon is a whip called Vampire Killer, while the secondary weapons are powered by Hearts, collected by attacking candles and killing monsters. Secondary weapons available are Daggers, Holy Water, Flying Axe, Stop Watch, Vampire Killer, released in 1986 for the MSX computer, took a departure from the traditional platform gameplay of Castlevania, instead introducing an open-ended form of gameplay. The games non-linear design had a structure to Metroid released that same year. The player could purchase supplies, equipment and weapon upgrades in several different towns. A major turning point in the mechanics of the series was Castlevania, Symphony of the Night, released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation. It also used role-playing video game elements, such as weapons, armor. Many subsequent Castlevania games have followed this template. Ayami Kojimas art was introduced in Symphony of the Night, and has featured in a few other titles. Dawn of Sorrow was the first game to do this, the first games in the series to employ 3D graphics were Castlevania and Castlevania, Legacy of Darkness for the Nintendo 64 in 1999. In 2007, Koji Igarashi stated that, if The Dracula X Chronicles did well, trivia about the series has also been mentioned in the Guinness World Records, Gamers Edition 2008. The earliest games borrowed source material from motifs in iconic horror cinema and other monsters from the Universal Horror, examples include werewolves, Frankensteins monster, The Mummy, Medusa, the Grim Reaper and Count Dracula himself. The earlier games paid homage to these films, later games also include many monsters from mythological sources. Most of the Castlevania video game franchise has been about the vampire hunting family of the Belmonts, almost every hundred years, Dracula is resurrected and generally the Belmonts must defeat him. Though most games in the series involve the Belmonts or their descendants, some protagonists, such as Soma Cruz, the series is loosely based on Bram Stokers novel Dracula. The novel is included in the timeline of the series, with Castlevania

Castlevania
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Screenshot of Castlevania on the NES.

6.
Computing platform
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Computing platform means in general sense, where any piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the system, even a web browser or other application. The term computing platform can refer to different abstraction levels, including a hardware architecture, an operating system. In total it can be said to be the stage on which programs can run. For example, an OS may be a platform that abstracts the underlying differences in hardware, platforms may also include, Hardware alone, in the case of small embedded systems. Embedded systems can access hardware directly, without an OS, this is referred to as running on bare metal, a browser in the case of web-based software. The browser itself runs on a platform, but this is not relevant to software running within the browser. An application, such as a spreadsheet or word processor, which hosts software written in a scripting language. This can be extended to writing fully-fledged applications with the Microsoft Office suite as a platform, software frameworks that provide ready-made functionality. Cloud computing and Platform as a Service, the social networking sites Twitter and facebook are also considered development platforms. A virtual machine such as the Java virtual machine, applications are compiled into a format similar to machine code, known as bytecode, which is then executed by the VM. A virtualized version of a system, including virtualized hardware, OS, software. These allow, for instance, a typical Windows program to run on what is physically a Mac, some architectures have multiple layers, with each layer acting as a platform to the one above it. In general, a component only has to be adapted to the layer immediately beneath it, however, the JVM, the layer beneath the application, does have to be built separately for each OS

7.
Sega Genesis
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The Sega Genesis, known as the Mega Drive in most regions outside of North America, is a 16-bit home video game console which was developed and sold by Sega Enterprises, Ltd. The Genesis was Segas third console and the successor to the Master System, Sega first released the console as the Mega Drive in Japan in 1988, followed by a North American debut under the Genesis moniker in 1989. In 1990, the console was distributed as the Mega Drive by Virgin Mastertronic in Europe, by Ozisoft in Australasia, in South Korea, the systems were distributed by Samsung and were known as the Super Gam*Boy, and later the Super Aladdin Boy. The system supports a library of more than 900 games created both by Sega and an array of third-party publishers and delivered on ROM-based cartridges. It can play Master System games when the separately sold Power Base Converter is inserted, the Genesis has benefited from several peripherals and network services, as well as multiple first-party and third-party variations of the console that focus on extending its functionality. Controversy surrounding violent titles such as Night Trap and Mortal Kombat led Sega to create the Videogame Rating Council, Sega sold 30.75 million units worldwide. The console and its games continue to be popular among fans, game music fans, collectors. As of 2015, licensed third party re-releases of the console are being sold by AtGames in North America and Europe. Many games have been re-released in compilations for newer consoles and offered for download on online services, such as the Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network. The Genesis was succeeded by the Sega Saturn, in the early 1980s, Sega Enterprises, Inc. then a subsidiary of Gulf & Western, was one of the top five arcade game manufacturers active in the United States, as company revenues rose to $214 million. The company retained Segas North American R&D operation, as well as its Japanese subsidiary, Sega Enterprises, with its arcade business in decline, Gulf & Western executives turned to Sega Enterprises, Ltd. s president, Hayao Nakayama, for advice on how to proceed. Nakayama received permission to proceed with project, leading to the release of Segas first home video game system. The SG-1000 was not successful, and was replaced by the Sega Mark III within two years, Nakayama was then installed as CEO of the new Sega Enterprises, Ltd. In 1986, Sega redesigned the Mark III for release in North America as the Sega Master System and this was followed by a European release the next year. In 1987, Sega faced another threat to its business when Japanese computer giant NEC released the PC Engine amid great publicity. First announced in June 1988 in Beep, a Japanese gaming magazine, the developing console was referred to as the Mark V, but Sega management felt the need for a stronger name. After reviewing more than 300 proposals, the settled on Mega Drive. In North America, the name of the console was changed to Genesis, the reason for this change is not known, but it may have been due to a trademark dispute

Sega Genesis
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Top: Original Japanese Mega Drive Bottom: Sega Genesis Model 2 Other variations are pictured under Variations below
Sega Genesis
Sega Genesis
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An edition of the original model of Genesis, known as the Genesis III, was the model at the center of Sega v. Accolade for its incorporation of the Trademark Security System (TMSS)
Sega Genesis
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European Mega Drive mainboard

8.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands

9.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon

10.
PAL region
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The PAL region is a television publication territory that covers most of Asia, Africa, Europe, South America and Oceania. It is so named because of the PAL television standard used in those regions, as opposed to the NTSC standard traditionally used in Japan. Most video games designated as part of the region will not play on NTSC-U/C or NTSC-J region consoles because of regional lockout, while this is the most common occurrence, some Xbox and Xbox 360 games are region-free encoded, since Microsofts policy is for publishers to decide. Sony has a policy for the PlayStation Portable, but most publishers choose not to encode a region on their UMD games. With the exception of Persona 4 Arena, PlayStation 3 Blu-ray Disc games are region-free, all Nintendo home consoles except for the Nintendo Switch have region locking either by software encoding or physical differences in media and consoles. Australia uses PAL version games only for the Wii, PlayStation 3, as most hand-held consoles use their own proprietary display system, incompatibilities of differing TV systems are not relevant. However, the regions often exist for localisation and distribution purposes. The scope of the PAL region varies with systems and publishers, the following countries and areas are normally included in a PAL region release, Along with other Middle Eastern, African, and European countries. Beginning with the Dreamcast and continuing through the generation of consoles. Games ported to PAL have historically been known for having game speed and this was especially prevalent during previous generations when 2D graphics were used almost exclusively. The gameplay of many games with an emphasis on speed, such as the original Sonic The Hedgehog for the Mega Drive, suffered in their PAL incarnations. Despite the possibility and popularity of 60 Hz PAL games, many games, particularly for the PS. Square Enix have long been criticised by PAL gamers for their poor PAL conversions, final Fantasy X runs in 50 Hz mode only, and 16. 7% slower and bordered that while prevalent in previous generations was considered inexcusable at the time of release. In stark contrast, the Dreamcast was the first system to feature PAL60, the Xbox too featured a system-wide PAL60 option in the Dashboard, with almost every game supporting PAL60. Seventh generation PAL consoles such as the Xbox 360 and Wii also feature system-wide 60 Hz support, nintendos Virtual Console service has been criticized due to PAL games running in 50 Hz only, despite the ability to run in 60 Hz mode. In recent years, few PAL releases have lacked the standard PAL mode and offered 60 Hz only, notably Metroid Prime 2, Echoes and Geist for the Nintendo GameCube, PAL NTSC Advanced Television Systems Committee standards SECAM Regional lockout

PAL region
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Television system by country. Countries using the PAL system are shown in blue.

11.
Platform game
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A Platform game is a video game which involves guiding an avatar to jump between suspended platforms and/or over obstacles to advance the game. The player controls the jumps to avoid letting the avatar fall from platforms or miss necessary jumps, the most common unifying element of games of this genre is the jump button, but now there are other alternative like swiping in touchscreen. Jumping, in genre, may include swinging from extendable arms, as in Ristar or Bionic Commando, or bouncing from springboards or trampolines. These mechanics, even in the context of genres, are commonly called platforming. Games where jumping is automated completely, such as 3D games in The Legend of Zelda series, Platform games originated in the early 1980s, with 3D successors popularized in the mid-1990s. The term itself describes games where jumping on platforms is an part of the gameplay and came into use after the genre had been established. While commonly associated with gaming, there have been many important platform games released to video arcades, as well as for handheld game consoles. North America, Europe and Japan have played major parts in the genres evolution, Platform themes range from cartoon-like games to science fiction and fantasy epics. At one point, platform games were the most popular genre of video game, at the peak of their popularity, it is estimated that between one-quarter and one-third of console games were platformers. No genre either before or since has been able to achieve a market share. Since 2010, a variety of endless running platformers for mobile devices have brought renewed popularity to the genre, Platform games originated in the early 1980s. Because of the limitations of the day, early examples were confined to a static playing field. Space Panic, a 1980 arcade release by Universal, is credited as being the first platform game. While the player had the ability to fall, there was no ability to jump, swing, or bounce, however, it clearly influenced the genre, with gameplay centered on climbing ladders between different floors, a common element in many early platform games. Another precursor to the genre released that year was Nichibutsus Crazy Climber. Donkey Kong, a game created by Nintendo and released in July 1981, was the first game that allowed players to jump over obstacles and across gaps. Donkey Kong had an amount of platforming in its first two screens, but its last two screens had a more pronounced platform jumping component. This game also introduced Mario, an icon of the genre

Platform game
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Jumping Flash, the first 3D platformer on a console, had free-roaming environments in 1995.
Platform game
Platform game
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Trine mixed traditional platform elements with more modern physics puzzles.

12.
Vampire
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A vampire is a being from folklore who subsists by feeding on the life essence of the living. In European folklore, vampires were undead beings that often visited loved ones and they wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from todays gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism. In modern times, however, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, porphyria was also linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure, but has since been largely discredited. However, it is Bram Stokers 1897 novel Dracula which is remembered as the vampire novel. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, the vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre. Vampires had already discussed in French and German literature. After Austria gained control of northern Serbia and Oltenia with the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, officials noted the practice of exhuming bodies. These reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity, among the proposed proto-Slavic forms are *ǫpyrь and *ǫpirь. Another, less widespread theory, is that the Slavic languages have borrowed the word from a Turkic term for witch. Czech linguist Václav Machek proposes Slovak verb vrepiť sa, or its hypothetical anagram vperiť sa as an etymological background, and thus translates upír as someone who thrusts, bites. An early use of the Old Russian word is in the anti-pagan treatise Word of Saint Grigoriy, dated variously to the 11th–13th centuries, the notion of vampirism has existed for millennia. Cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires. It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour, these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood. Indeed, blood was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin and its left eye was often open. It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair, although vampires were generally described as undead, some folktales spoke of them as living beings. The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore, in Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse that was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead

13.
Dracula
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Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula. Dracula has been assigned to many genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel. Stoker did not invent the vampire but he defined its modern form, and the novel has spawned numerous theatrical, film, a short note is located at the end of the final chapter written 7 years after the events outlined in the novel. At first enticed by Draculas gracious manners, Harker soon realizes that he is Draculas prisoner, wandering the Counts castle against Draculas admonition, Harker encounters three female vampires, called the sisters, from whom he is rescued by Dracula. After the preparations are made, Dracula leaves Transylvania and abandons Harker to the sisters, Harker barely escapes from the castle with his life. Not long afterward, a Russian ship, the Demeter, having weighed anchor at Varna, the captains log narrates the gradual disappearance of the entire crew, until the captain alone remained, himself bound to the helm to maintain course. An animal resembling a dog is seen leaping ashore. The ships cargo is described as silver sand and 50 boxes of mould, or earth and he does this to secure for himself lairs and the 50 boxes of earth would be used as his graves which would grant safety and rest during times of feeding and replenishing his strength. Soon Dracula is indirectly shown to be stalking Lucy Westenra, who is holidaying in Whitby, as time passes she begins to suffer from episodes of sleepwalking and dementia, as witnessed by her friend Mina Murray, the fiancée of Jonathan Harker. Lucy receives three marriage proposals from Dr. John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Arthur Holmwood, Lucy accepts Holmwoods proposal while turning down Seward and Morris, but all remain friends. Dracula communicates with Sewards patient Renfield, an man who wishes to consume insects, spiders, birds. Renfield is able to detect Draculas presence and supplies clues accordingly, when Lucy begins to waste away suspiciously, Seward invites his old teacher, Abraham Van Helsing, who immediately determines the true cause of Lucys condition. He refuses to disclose it but diagnoses her with acute blood-loss, Helsing prescribes numerous blood transfusions to which Dr. Seward, Helsing, Quincey and Arthur all contribute over time. Helsing also prescribes flowers to be placed throughout her room and weaves a necklace of withered Garlic Blossoms for her to wear as well and she however continues to waste away - appearing to lose blood every night. While both doctors are absent, Lucy and her mother are attacked by a wolf, Mrs. Westenra, who has a heart condition, dies of fright. Van Helsing attempts to protect her with garlic but fate thwarts him each night, whether Lucys mother removes the garlic from her room, the doctors have found two small puncture marks about her neck, which Dr. Seward is at a loss to understand. After Lucy dies, Helsing places a crucifix over her mouth. Fate conspires against him again when Helsing finds the crucifix in the possession of one of the servants who stole it off Lucys corpse, following Lucys death and burial, the newspapers report children being stalked in the night by a bloofer lady

Dracula
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The cover of the first edition
Dracula
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Stoker's handwritten notes on the personnel of the novel
Dracula
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Shakespearean actor and friend of Stoker's, Sir Henry Irving was a possible real-life inspiration for the character of Dracula. The role was tailor-made to his dramatic presence, gentlemanly mannerisms and affinity for playing villain roles. Irving, however, never agreed to play the part on stage.
Dracula
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1899 first American edition, Doubleday & McClure, New York.

14.
20th century
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The 20th century was a century that began on January 1,1901 and ended on December 31,2000. It was the tenth and final century of the 2nd millennium and it is distinct from the century known as the 1900s, which began on January 1,1900 and ended on December 31,1999. It saw great advances in communication and medical technology that by the late 1980s allowed for near-instantaneous worldwide computer communication, the term short twentieth century was coined to represent the events from 1914 to 1991. It took all of history up to 1804 for the worlds population to reach 1 billion, world population reached 2 billion estimates in 1927, by late 1999. Globally approximately 45% of those who were married and able to have children used contraception, 40% of pregnancies were unplanned, the century had the first global-scale total wars between world powers across continents and oceans in World War I and World War II. The century saw a shift in the way that many people lived, with changes in politics, ideology, economics, society, culture, science, technology. The 20th century may have seen more technological and scientific progress than all the other centuries combined since the dawn of civilization, terms like ideology, world war, genocide, and nuclear war entered common usage. It was a century that started with horses, simple automobiles, and freighters but ended with high-speed rail, cruise ships, global commercial air travel and the space shuttle. Horses, Western societys basic form of transportation for thousands of years, were replaced by automobiles and buses within a few decades. Humans explored space for the first time, taking their first footsteps on the Moon, mass media, telecommunications, and information technology made the worlds knowledge more widely available. Advancements in medical technology also improved the health of many people, rapid technological advancements, however, also allowed warfare to reach unprecedented levels of destruction. World War II alone killed over 60 million people, while nuclear weapons gave humankind the means to annihilate itself in a short time, however, these same wars resulted in the destruction of the Imperial system. For the first time in history, empires and their wars of expansion and colonization ceased to be a factor in international affairs, resulting in a far more globalized. The last time major powers clashed openly was in 1945, and since then, technological advancements during World War I changed the way war was fought, as new inventions such as tanks, chemical weapons, and aircraft modified tactics and strategy. After more than four years of warfare in western Europe, and 20 million dead. The regime of Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown during the conflict, Russia became the first communist state, at the beginning of the period, Britain was the worlds most powerful nation, having acted as the worlds policeman for the past century. Meanwhile, Japan had rapidly transformed itself into an advanced industrial power. Its military expansion into eastern Asia and the Pacific Ocean culminated in an attack on the United States

15.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany

16.
Miniboss
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In video gaming, a boss is a significant computer-controlled enemy. A fight with a character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. A boss enemy is quite larger in size than other enemies. Most commonly, bosses are very hard or impossible to defeat without knowing the correct fighting approach, Bosses take strategy and special knowledge to defeat, such as how to attack weak points or avoiding specific attacks. The first interactive game to feature a boss was dnd, a 1975 role-playing video game for the PLATO system, one of the earliest dungeon crawls, dnd implemented many of the core concepts behind Dungeons & Dragons. The objective of the game is to retrieve an Orb from the bottommost dungeon, the orb is kept in a treasure room guarded by a high-level enemy named the Gold Dragon. Only by defeating the Dragon can the player claim the orb, complete the game, a 1980 example is the fixed shooter Phoenix, where the player ship must fight a giant mothership in the fifth and final level. Bosses are usually more difficult than regular enemies, can sustain a lot more damage, while most games include a mixture of boss opponents and regular opponents, some games have only regular opponents and some games have only bosses. Some bosses require the player to them in a certain way that may be unusual to normal attacks, such as using a certain weapon. Story-centered bosses sometimes require certain prerequisites to be performed during the fight for the player to succeed, some bosses are encountered several times through a single game, typically with alternate attacks and a different strategy required to defeat it each time. Boss battles are seen as dramatic events. As such, they are characterized with unique music and cutscenes before. Recurring bosses and final bosses may have their own theme music to distinguish them from other boss battles. A miniboss, also known as a boss, mid-boss, half-boss, sub-boss. Some minibosses are simply stronger versions of enemies, like in the Kirby games. Some well known video game characters who take the role of a miniboss are Dark Link, Vile. A superboss is a type of boss most commonly found in role-playing video games and they are considered optional enemies, though optional bosses are not all superbosses, and do not have to be defeated to complete the game. For example, in Final Fantasy VII, the player may choose to out and fight the Ruby

Miniboss
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A boss fight from Guacamelee, in which the player characters (the two characters in luchador outfits) must keep ahead of the giant rampaging creature from the left while dodging obstacles and other enemies
Miniboss
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Tux fights the Yeti boss in SuperTux.

17.
Hellhound
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A hellhound is a supernatural dog in folklore. A wide variety of ominous or hellish supernatural dogs occur in mythologies around the world, features that have been attributed to hellhounds include mangled black fur, glowing red eyes, super strength or speed, ghostly or phantom characteristics, and a foul odor. Certain European legends state that if someone stares into a hellhounds eyes three times or more, that person will surely die, in cultures that associate the afterlife with fire, hellhounds may have fire-based abilities and appearance. In European legends, seeing a hellhound or hearing it howl may be an omen or even a cause of death and they are said to be the protectors of the supernatural, guarding the secrecy of supernatural creatures, or beings, from the world. Some supernatural dogs, such as the Welsh Cŵn Annwn, were regarded as benign, the most famous hellhound is probably Cerberus from Greek mythology. Hellhounds are also famous for appearing in Northern European mythology and folklore as a part of the Wild Hunt and these hounds are given several different names in local folklore, but they display typical hellhound characteristics. The myth is common across Great Britain, and many names are given to the apparitions, Moddey Dhoo of the Isle of Man, other ghostly black dogs exist in legend. The earliest mention of these myths are in both Walter Maps De Nugis Curianium and the Welsh myth cycle of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. In southern Mexico and Central America folklore, the Cadejo is a big black dog that haunts travellers who walk late at night on rural roads, the term is also common in American blues music, such as with Robert Johnsons 1937 song, Hellhound on My Trail. In Greek mythology the hellhound Cerberus belonged to Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, Cerberus was said to be a massive, three-headed black dog that guarded the entrance to the underworld. One is said to frequent a remote gorge named Trollers Gill, there is also a story of a Barghest entering the city of York occasionally, where, according to legend, it preys on lone travelers in the citys narrow Snickelways. Whitby is also associated with the spectre, a famous Barghest was said to live near Darlington who was said to take the form of a headless man, a headless lady, a white cat, a dog, rabbit and black dog. Another was said to live in a dale between Darlington and Houghton, near Throstlenest. The derivation of the word barghest is disputed, ghost in the north of England was once pronounced guest, and the name is thought to be burh-ghest, town-ghost. Others explain it as German Berg-geist, or Bär-geist, in allusion to its appearance at times as a bear. Another mooted derivation is Bier-Geist, the spirit of the funeral bier, the Bearer of Death is a term used in describing the Hellhound. Hellhounds have been said to be as black as coal and smell of burning brimstone and they tend to leave behind a burned area wherever they go. Their eyes are a deep, bright, and almost glowing red and they have razor sharp teeth, super strength and speed, and are commonly associated with graveyards and the underworld

Hellhound
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Goddess Hel and the hellhound Garmr by Johannes Gehrts, 1889
Hellhound
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The title character in Charlotte Brontë 's 1847 novel Jane Eyre is reminded of a Gytrash when she first sees Mr Rochester's black horse Mesrour and his black and white dog Pilot. Illustration by F. H. Townsend for the second edition of the book.

18.
Romania
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Romania is a sovereign state located in Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and it has an area of 238,391 square kilometres and a temperate-continental climate. With over 19 million inhabitants, the country is the member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth-largest city in the EU, the River Danube, Europes second-longest river, rises in Germany and flows in a general southeast direction for 2,857 km, coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romanias Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest are marked by one of their tallest peaks, Moldoveanu, modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the sovereign Kingdom of Romania. Romania lost several territories, of which Northern Transylvania was regained after the war, following the war, Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition towards democracy and it has been a member of NATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. A strong majority of the population identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians and are speakers of Romanian. The cultural history of Romania is often referred to when dealing with artists, musicians, inventors. For similar reasons, Romania has been the subject of notable tourist attractions, Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning citizen of Rome. The first known use of the appellation was attested in the 16th century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, after the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the word rumân gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the form român. Tudor Vladimirescu, a leader of the early 19th century. The use of the name Romania to refer to the homeland of all Romanians—its modern-day meaning—was first documented in the early 19th century. The name has been officially in use since 11 December 1861, in English, the name of the country was formerly spelt Rumania or Roumania. Romania became the predominant spelling around 1975, Romania is also the official English-language spelling used by the Romanian government. The Neolithic-Age Cucuteni area in northeastern Romania was the region of the earliest European civilization. Evidence from this and other sites indicates that the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture extracted salt from salt-laden spring water through the process of briquetage

19.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa

Europe
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Reconstruction of Herodotus ' world map
Europe
Europe
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A medieval T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of Noah — Asia to Sem (Shem), Europe to Iafeth (Japheth), and Africa to Cham (Ham)
Europe
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Early modern depiction of Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical Europa of the 8th century BC.

20.
Athens
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Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common

21.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens

22.
Pisa
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Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its tower, the city of over 90,834 residents contains more than 20 other historic churches, several medieval palaces. Much of the architecture was financed from its history as one of the Italian maritime republics. The origin of the name, Pisa, is a mystery, while the origin of the city had remained unknown for centuries, the Pelasgi, the Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Ligurians had variously been proposed as founders of the city. Archaeological remains from the 5th century BC confirmed the existence of a city at the sea, trading with Greeks, the presence of an Etruscan necropolis, discovered during excavations in the Arena Garibaldi in 1991, confirmed its Etruscan origins. Ancient Roman authors referred to Pisa as an old city, strabo referred Pisas origins to the mythical Nestor, king of Pylos, after the fall of Troy. Virgil, in his Aeneid, states that Pisa was already a center by the times described. The Virgilian commentator Servius wrote that the Teuti, or Pelops, the maritime role of Pisa should have been already prominent if the ancient authorities ascribed to it the invention of the naval ram. Pisa took advantage of being the port along the western coast from Genoa to Ostia. Pisa served as a base for Roman naval expeditions against Ligurians, Gauls, in 180 BC, it became a Roman colony under Roman law, as Portus Pisanus. In 89 BC, Portus Pisanus became a municipium, Emperor Augustus fortified the colony into an important port and changed the name in Colonia Iulia obsequens. It is supposed that Pisa was founded on the shore, however, due to the alluvial sediments from the Arno and the Serchio, whose mouth lies about 11 kilometres north of the Arnos, the shore moved west. Strabo states that the city was 4.0 kilometres away from the coast, currently, it is located 9.7 kilometres from the coast. However it was a city, with ships sailing up the Arno. In the 90s AD, a complex was built in the city. During the later years of the Roman Empire, Pisa did not decline as much as the cities of Italy, probably thanks to the complexity of its river system. After Charlemagne had defeated the Lombards under the command of Desiderius in 774, Pisa went through a crisis, politically it became part of the duchy of Lucca

Pisa
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Pisa
Pisa
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Coat of arms
Pisa
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Hypothetical map of Pisa in the 5th century AD
Pisa
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Hypothetical map of Pisa in the 11th century AD

23.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world

24.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed

25.
Palace of Versailles
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The Palace of Versailles, Château de Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. Versailles is therefore not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime. First built by Louis XIII in 1623, as a lodge of brick and stone. The first phase of the expansion was designed and supervised by the architect Louis Le Vau and it culminated in the addition of three new wings of stone, which surrounded Louis XIIIs original building on the north, south, and west. After Le Vaus death in 1670, the work was taken over and completed by his assistant, charles Le Brun designed and supervised the elaborate interior decoration, and André Le Nôtre landscaped the extensive Gardens of Versailles. Le Brun and Le Nôtre collaborated on the fountains, and Le Brun supervised the design. During the second phase of expansion, two enormous wings north and south of the wings flanking the Cour Royale were added by the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart. He also replaced Le Vaus large terrace, facing the garden on the west, with became the most famous room of the palace. The Royal Chapel of Versailles, located at the end of the north wing, was begun by Mansart in 1688. One of the most baffling aspects to the study of Versailles is the cost – how much Louis XIV, owing to the nature of the construction of Versailles and the evolution of the role of the palace, construction costs were essentially a private matter. Initially, Versailles was planned to be a residence for Louis XIV and was referred to as the kings house. Once Louis XIV embarked on his campaigns, expenses for Versailles became more of a matter for public record. To counter the costs of Versailles during the years of Louis XIVs personal reign. Accordingly, all materials that went into the construction and decoration of Versailles were manufactured in France, even the mirrors used in the decoration of the Hall of Mirrors were made in France. While Venice in the 17th century had the monopoly on the manufacture of mirrors, to meet the demands for decorating and furnishing Versailles, Colbert nationalised the tapestry factory owned by the Gobelin family, to become the Manufacture royale des Gobelins. In 1667, the name of the enterprise was changed to the Manufacture royale des Meubles de la Couronne, the Comptes meticulously list the expenditures on the silver furniture – disbursements to artists, final payments, delivery – as well as descriptions and weight of items purchased. Entries for 1681 and 1682 concerning the silver used in the salon de Mercure serve as an example. 5 In anticipation, For the silver balustrade for the bedroom,90,000 livres II

26.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks

27.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years

28.
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
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Castlevania, Rondo of Blood, known in Japan as Akumajō Dracula X, Chi no Rondo, is a platform-adventure video game developed by Konami for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² System directed by Toru Hagihara. It is set in the universe of the Castlevania series, where the protagonist Richter Belmont goes to save his lover Annette. It was released in Japan on October 29,1993, a direct sequel to it, Castlevania, Symphony of the Night, was released in 1997. The game was ported to the Super Nintendo as Castlevania, Dracula X. In 2008, the original game was released for the Wiis Virtual Console service in Japan and for the North American. Richter makes use of a whip as his weapon and one of six sub-weapons, an axe, a dagger, holy water, a grimoire, a pocket watch. While exploring the castle, Richter can rescue four maidens, including his distant relative Maria Renard who then becomes a playable character. She attacks using her doves and one of six sub-weapons, a white kitten, dragon whelp, baby phoenix, turtle. Items such as money, hearts, and food can be scattered throughout the areas. Rondo of Blood also features the Item Crash ability reused in subsequent Castlevania titles and its direct sequel, Castlevania, Symphony of the Night, reuses many of the monsters. Taking place in 1792, Rondo of Blood is set in the universe of the Castlevania series. The premise of the series is the conflict between the vampire hunters of the Belmont clan and the immortal vampire Dracula. The protagonist is 19-year-old Richter Belmont, heir to the whip Vampire Killer and he comes to the castle after his beloved Annette is kidnapped by Draculas servant Shaft. Two times throughout the game, Draculas trusty lieutenant, Death, after defeating Shaft and Death, Richter confronts Dracula and vanquishes him. The castle then collapses into the sea, Rondo of Blood is the tenth installment of the Castlevania video game series. Produced by Konami, Rondo of Blood originally saw only a Japanese-exclusive release on the PC Engine on October 29,1993. Later, a port was released on the Wii for the Japanese Virtual Console on April 22,2008, as an import, it available in North America on March 15,2010. For the audio, Rondo of Blood makes use of Red Book Audio along with the onboard soundchip, akira Souji, Keizo Nakamura, Tomoko Sano, and Mikio Saito composed the soundtrack of Rondo of Blood

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
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Japanese box art

29.
Sarajevo
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Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its current administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area, including Sarajevo Canton and East Sarajevo is home to 688,384 inhabitants, nestled within the greater Sarajevo valley of Bosnia, it is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans. Due to its long and rich history of religious and cultural variety and it is the only major European city to have a mosque, Catholic church, Orthodox church and synagogue within the same neighbourhood. Although settlement in the area back to prehistoric times, the modern city arose as an Ottoman stronghold in the 15th century. Sarajevo has attracted international attention several times throughout its history, in 1885, Sarajevo was the first city in Europe and the second city in the world to have a full-time electric tram network running through the city, following San Francisco. For nearly four years, from 1992 to 1996, the city suffered the longest siege of a city in the history of warfare during the Bosnian War. Sarajevo has been undergoing reconstruction, and is the fastest growing city in Bosnia. The travel guide series, Lonely Planet, has named Sarajevo as the 43rd best city in the world, in 2011, Sarajevo was nominated to be the European Capital of Culture in 2014 and will be hosting the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2019. The earliest known name for the large central Bosnian region of todays Sarajevo is Vrhbosna, Sarajevo is a slavicized word based on saray, the Turkish word for palace. The evo portion may come from the term saray ovası first recorded in 1455, the first mention of name Sarajevo was in 1507 letter written by Feriz Beg. The earliest is Šeher, which is the term Isa-Beg Ishaković used to describe the town he was going to build and it is a Turkish word meaning an advanced city of key importance which in turn comes from Persian, شهر‎‎ shahr. As Sarajevo developed, numerous nicknames came from comparisons to other cities in the Islamic world, the most popular of these was European Jerusalem. Some argue that a correct translation of saray is government office or house. Saray is a word in Turkish for a palace or mansion. Sarajevo is located near the center of the triangular-shaped Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is situated 518 meters above sea level and lies in the Sarajevo valley, the valley itself once formed a vast expanse of greenery, but gave way to urban expansion and development in the post-World War II era. The city is surrounded by forested hills and five major mountains. The last four are known as the Olympic Mountains of Sarajevo

30.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province

31.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia

Australia
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Aboriginal rock art in the Kimberley region of Western Australia
Australia
Australia
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Portrait of Captain James Cook, the first European to map the eastern coastline of Australia in 1770
Australia
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Tasmania's Port Arthur penal settlement is one of eleven UNESCO World Heritage-listed Australian Convict Sites.

32.
Software localization
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In computing, internationalization and localization are means of adapting computer software to different languages, regional differences and technical requirements of a target market. Internationalization is the process of designing a software application so that it can potentially be adapted to various languages, localization is the process of adapting internationalized software for a specific region or language by adding locale-specific components and translating text. Localization uses the infrastructure or flexibility provided by internationalization, the terms are frequently abbreviated to the numeronyms i18n and L10n for localization, due to the length of the words. Some companies, like IBM and Sun Microsystems, use the term globalization, g11n, Microsoft defines Internationalization as a combination of World-Readiness and localization. World-Readiness is a task, which enables a product to be used with multiple scripts and cultures. Hewlett-Packard and HP-UX created the system called NLS to produce localizable software, translation is typically the most time-consuming component of language localization. These differences may need to be taken account by the internationalization process in preparation for translation. Many of these differences are so regular that a conversion between languages can be easily automated, the Common Locale Data Repository by Unicode provides a collection of such differences. Its data is used by operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, OS X and Debian, and by major internet companies or projects such as Google. Examples of such include, Different scripts in different writing systems use different characters - a different set of letters, syllograms, logograms. Modern system use the Unicode standard to represent many different languages with a character encoding. Writing direction is left to right in most European languages, right-to-left in Hebrew and Arabic, complex text layout, for languages where characters change shape depending on context. Capitalization exists in some scripts and not in others, other grammar rules might also vary, e. g. genitive. Keyboard shortcuts can only use of buttons actually on the keyboard layout which is being localized for. If a shortcut corresponds to a word in a particular language, other areas often follow one of these. Specific third-party services, such as maps, weather reports, or payment service providers, might not be available worldwide from the same carriers. Time zones vary across the world, and this must be taken into account if a product originally only interacted with people in a time zone. For internationalization, UTC is often used internally and then converted into a time zone for display purposes

Software localization
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The internationalization and localization process (based on a chart from the LISA website.)
Software localization
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Screenshot of software programs localized to Italian.

33.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
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Castlevania, Symphony of the Night is a platform-adventure action role-playing game developed and published by Konami in 1997 for the PlayStation. It is the sequel to Castlevania, Rondo of Blood and features Draculas dhampir son Alucard as the protagonist and it marks a break from previous games in the series, which are action platformers. The game emphasizes exploration, has non-linear level design, and Role-playing video game elements, initially, the game was unsuccessful – particularly in the United States where it was meagerly publicized – but thanks to praise by critics, it gained sales through word-of-mouth and became a hit. It has been re-released on several consoles and is considered a hit, a cult classic. Symphony of the Night uses 2-dimensional Side-scrolling video game gameplay, the objective is exploring Draculas castle to defeat Richter Belmont, who says hes lord of Castle Dracula. Canonically, Richter was the hero of the events took place in Castlevania. The game is non-linear, but most of the castle is inaccessible until various items are collected, including Shapeshifting into a bat, wolf, as the player uncovers more of the castle, a map is updated to show progress. While protagonists in previous Castlevania games typically used a whip, the player can find weapons ranging from Zweihänders to Nunchaku and he can also obtain health restoratives, equipment and items that boost his attributes, these are located on an inventory. Relics found throughout the castle provide Alucard with abilities, such as the ability to double jump, a bestiary kept by the castles librarian, who also functions as a shopkeeper, shows the monsters encountered by the player and the items they drop when defeated. Castlevania, Symphony of the Night incorporates elements found in role-playing games, Alucards hit points determine the maximum amount of damage he can withstand before dying while his magic points decide how frequently a magical attack may be cast. Defeating monsters provides him with experience points and he will level up after reaching a predetermined amount, Alucard may cast eight different spells, which requires the player to input directional combinations and will use up varying amounts of his magic points. During the course of the game, Alucard can acquire the ability to summon familiars, the North American version of the game includes the Fairy, Demon, Ghost, Bat, and Sword familiars. The original Japanese version also includes the familiars Nose Devil and Pixie, alternative modes of gameplay can be unlocked after the completion of the game. By inputting Richter Belmonts name as the name, the player can choose to play as Richter. Two alternative modes have Alucard as the character with certain items. Castlevania, Symphony of the Night begins during the ending of the game in the series, Castlevania, Rondo of Blood. Four years later, in 1796, Alucard arrives at the castle, inside, he meets Draculas servant Death, who warns him to stop his quest to destroy the castle and strips him of his equipment. He also meets Maria Renard, a vampire hunter who fought alongside Richter and is now searching for him, and the castles librarian

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
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European box art by Ayami Kojima
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
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Gameplay in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, with Alucard, the primary character, in the center

34.
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
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Castlevania, Circle of the Moon, known simply as Castlevania in the PAL region, is a video game created by Konami only for the Game Boy Advance. Circle of the Moon focuses on Nathan Graves and his quest to rescue his mentor from Dracula. It is the last Castlevania game to use the original logo. Circle of the Moon makes use of a 2D side-scrolling style of gameplay, the objective of Circle of the Moon is to lead player character Nathan Graves through a monster-filled castle as he searches for his kidnapped mentor. Hearts, typically found within candles, determine the amount of any secondary weapon carried by him. He will also encounter rooms with the ability to him across portions of the castle and rooms which will restore his health. The game also automatically updates the map to reflect Nathans progress through it. Circle of the Moon incorporates elements found in role-playing games, defeated enemies drop various items and equipment, and provide experience points, after reaching a predetermined amount of experience points, Nathan will level up, and his statistics will improve. The defeat of boss enemies allows the player to new abilities to progress further in the game. Unique to Circle of the Moon is the Dual Set-up System, to produce a magical effect, the player combines one card from each of the two categories, for a total of one hundred different combinations. Castlevania, Circle of the Moon has four modes of gameplay. Fighter Mode does not permit the use of DSS cards, but increases his strength, shooter Mode allows a higher maximum of hearts he can carry, but gives a penalty to strength, defense, and hit points. Nathan can throw homing daggers if he collects two daggers in a row in this mode, thief Mode reduces Nathans strength and defense, but increases his luck greatly. Taking place in 1830, Circle of the Moon is set in one of the universes of the Castlevania series. The premise of the series is the eternal conflict between the vampire hunters of the Belmont clan and the immortal vampire Dracula. Circle of the Moons protagonist, however, is Nathan Graves, at an old castle, Camilla, a minion of Dracula, revives him, only to be interrupted by the arrival of Morris, Nathan, and Hugh. Before they are able to him again, Dracula destroys the floor under Nathan and Hugh. Surviving the fall and wishing to find his father, Hugh leaves Nathan behind, Nathan proceeds to search the castle for his mentor

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
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North American box art

35.
Game Boy Advance
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The Game Boy Advance is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21,2001, in North America on June 11,2001, in Australia and Europe on June 22,2001, and in the Peoples Republic of China on June 8,2004. Nintendos competitors in the market at the time were the Neo Geo Pocket Color, WonderSwan, GP32, Tapwave Zodiac. Despite the competitors best efforts, Nintendo maintained a majority market share with the Game Boy Advance, as of June 30,2010, the Game Boy Advance series has sold 81.51 million units worldwide. Its successor, the Nintendo DS, was released in November 2004 and is compatible with Game Boy Advance software. The Game Boy Advance was designed by the French designer Gwénaël Nicolas, in 1996, magazines including Electronic Gaming Monthly, issues 53 and 54 of Total. and the July 1996 issue of Game Informer featured reports of a new Game Boy, codenamed Project Atlantis. It also may have referred to the unnamed, unreleased Game Boy Color successor prototype that was revealed at 2009s Game Developers Conference and it was announced that Nintendo Co. Ltd. was working on a game for the system called Marios Castle. When playing Game Boy or Game Boy Color games on the Game Boy Advance, Game Boy games can be played using the same selectable color palettes as on the Game Boy Color. Every Nintendo handheld system following the release of the Game Boy Advance SP has included a built-in light and rechargeable battery. The Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS 2D graphics hardware have scaling and rotation for traditional tiled backgrounds in its modes 1 and 2 and scaling, more complex effects such as fuzz are possible by using other equations for the position, scaling, and rotation of each line. The character mode supports up to 4 tile map background layers per frame, with each tile being 8x8 pixels in size and having 16 or 256 colors. The character mode supports up to 128 hardware sprites per frame, with any sprite size from 8x8 to 64x64 pixels. With hardware comparable to the Super NES, the Game Boy Advance represents progress for sprite-based technology, the Game Boy Advance has platformers, SNES-style role-playing video games, and classic games ported from various 8-bit and 16-bit systems of the previous generations. This includes the Super Mario Advance series, as well as the backward compatibility with all earlier Game Boy titles. Final Fantasy VI Advance was the final licensed Japanese GBA game release, Released November 2006, it was the final Nintendo-published game for the system. The Legend of Spyro, The Eternal Night was the final European GBA game, samurai Deeper Kyo was the final North American GBA game, released in February 2008. The last Nintendo-developed game released for the system was the Japan-only rhythm game Rhythm Tengoku, an accessory for the GameCube, known as the Game Boy Player, was released in 2003 as the successor to the Super Game Boy peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The accessory allows Game Boy Advance games, as well as Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, however, some games may have compatibility issues due to certain features

Game Boy Advance
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1st generation Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
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The Wireless Adapter was packed in with Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen
Game Boy Advance
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The Afterburner installed on a GBA, showing internal lighting.
Game Boy Advance
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Game Boy Advance SP

36.
Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
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A large part of the games challenge is based on jumping from platform to platform while avoiding environmental hazards, such as enemies and traps. Platforms are usually stationary, but some may rotate out from under the player, move through the environment like a rail shooter, there are also some invisible platforms that either afford players a strategic advantage or lead to hidden items. Castlevania also includes elements from the horror game genre. In addition to the trappings and narrative devices of Gothic horror, players are placed in situations that evoke feelings of stress, anxiety. Players may be trapped in caged fights with monsters, such as the battle with the Cerberus hounds in the Villa when the screen darkens to near-black. Some caged battles are timed, such as the battles in the Duel Tower level. Vampires are also often fought in caged environments, with the complication that they can latch onto Carrie, Cornell, Henry. If the player doesnt break free by rapidly rotating the control stick, unless a specific item is used to recover, the game becomes exponentially more challenging. Castlevania also features two high-stakes survival horror sequences, In the Villas maze garden, players must help Henry through the labyrinthine hedges while strong, in the Castle Center, players must carefully carry the magic nitro item through a nerve-wracking obstacle course to its destination. One fall or hit can cause the volatile chemical to explode, set in the year 1844, the game stars the man-beast Cornell in his quest to prevent his adoptive sister, Ada, from being used as a sacrifice to resurrect Dracula. The game opens as Cornell arrives at his village, which has burned to the ground by Draculas minions. He finds Adas pendant in a doorway and follows her scent to Draculas castle, during the course of the game, Cornell comes upon a grand estate owned by the Oldrey family, J. A. Oldrey, the master of the Villa, Mary, his wife, gilles de Rais and Actrise have turned Oldrey Senior into a vampire. At Marys request, Cornell guides Henry to safety, later in life, Henry returns to Castlevania to save kidnapped children. Throughout the game, Cornell encounters his rival and fellow man-beast, Ortega has allied himself with Dracula to finally beat Cornell in combat, turning into a chimera like creature. They eventually battle near the end of the game, just before Cornell defeats Dracula and he only accomplishes the latter by sacrificing his man-wolf powers. Unbeknownst to the hero, acquiring this power was the aim of the dark forces. Legacy of Darkness was a continuation of Konamis first attempt to create a 3D Castlevania, the game more fully realizes the game designers vision

37.
Nintendo 64
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The Nintendo 64, stylized as the NINTENDO64 and often referred to as the N64, is Nintendos third home video game console for the international market. It was the last major home console to use the cartridge as its primary storage format until Nintendos seventh console, while the Nintendo 64 was succeeded by Nintendos MiniDVD-based GameCube in September 2001, the consoles remained available until the system was retired in late 2003. Codenamed Project Reality, the the N64 design was complete by mid-1995, but its launch was delayed until 1996. It launched with three games, Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64, released worldwide, and Saikyō Habu Shōgi, as part of the fifth generation of gaming, the system competed primarily with the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. The suggested retail price at its United States launch was US$199.99, the console was released in a range of colors and designs over its lifetime. In 2015, IGN named it the 9th greatest video game console of all time, as of 2016, the system remains a popular retro console in North America. At the beginning of the 1990s, Nintendo led the game industry with its Nintendo Entertainment System. Although the NES follow-up console, the Super NES, was successful, competition from long-time rival Sega, and relative newcomer Sony, emphasized Nintendos need to develop a successor for the SNES, or risk losing market dominance to its competitors. Further complicating matters, Nintendo also faced a backlash from third-party developers unhappy with Nintendos strict licensing policies, the company created a design proposal for a video game system, seeking an already well established partner in that market. James H. Clark, founder of SGI, initially offered the proposal to Tom Kalinske, the historical details of these preliminary negotiations were controversial between the two competing suitors. Tom Kalinske said that he and Joe Miller of Sega of America were quite impressed with SGIs prototype, the engineers from Sega Enterprises claimed that their evaluation of the early prototype had uncovered several unresolved hardware issues and deficiencies. Those were subsequently resolved, but Sega had already decided against SGIs design, Nintendo resisted that summary conclusion, arguing that the reason for SGIs ultimate choice of partner is due to Nintendo having been a more appealing business partner than Sega. While Sega demanded exclusive rights to the chip, Nintendo was willing to license the technology on a non-exclusive basis, michael Slater, publisher of Microprocessor Report said, The mere fact of a business relationship there is significant because of Nintendos phenomenal ability to drive volume. If it works at all, it could bring MIPS to levels of volume never dreamed of, james Clark met with Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi in early 1993, thus initiating Project Reality. This announcement coincided with Nintendos August 1993 Shoshinkai trade show, as with most of the computing industry, Nintendo had limited experience with 3D graphics, and worked with several outside companies to develop the technology comprising the console. Some chip technology was provided by NEC, Toshiba, and Sharp, SGI had recently acquired MIPS Computer Systems, and the two worked together toward a low-cost realtime 3D graphics hardware system. SGI and its subsidiary MIPS Technologies were responsible for the R4300i microprocessor and that software-based console prototype platform was later supplanted by a workstation-hosted console simulation board, representing the finalized console hardware. SGIs performance estimates based upon their RealityEngine supercomputing platform were ultimately reported to be accurate to the final consumer console product

38.
Super Castlevania IV
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Super Castlevania IV is a platform game developed and published by Konami and the first Castlevania game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was released in 1991 and later re-released on the Virtual Console in 2006 for the Wii, in 2013 for the Wii U. It features expanded play control, 16-bit graphics featuring SNES Mode 7, following the same setting as Castlevania on the NES, the game takes place in 1691 Transylvania, where the vampire hunter Simon Belmont must defeat the vampire Dracula. Super Castlevania IV is a platform game where the player takes control of Simon through eleven levels. Players begin the game with three lives, and the results in game over once they have lost them all. The player will lose a life if all of Simons health gauge is depleted or if they do not finish the level within the time limit. The health gauge can be restored through food items that can be dropped from candles and enemies, or with the Magic Crystal, a password can also be entered to continue the game. With Simons whip, players can attack enemies in eight directions with the use of the control pad, by holding down the attack button, the whip will go limp and can be waved around with the control pad, which can be used to block projectiles. The length and power of the whip can be increased up to two levels by collecting an item called the Morning Star. The whip is not only used for fighting, but also for latching onto rings to swing over areas that are too wide or dangerous for the player to jump across, in addition to jumping, the player can control Simon to move while crouching. Like its predecessors, players can use weapons that consume Simons Hearts. The secondary weapons include but are not limited to an axe which can be thrown in an arc, a watch which stops all enemy motion, collecting the items known as the Double and Triple Shots allows the player to throw secondary weapons up to three times in a row. Super Castlevania IV was directed by Masahiro Ueno, who was also the main programmer and his first 16-bit game, Uenos team possibly started development on it during 1989. Ueno liked the original Castlevania for the Nintendo Entertainment System the most, Ueno only considers Super Castlevania IV a remake of the original Castlevania to some extent. Many features in Super Castlevania IV were introduced to make it a frustrating game for players. Due to the team being small, everyone was involved with the design and some came from the creative artists. The team drew maps on paper and a lot was changed as the game was worked on, mitsuru Yaida programmed Simon and also implemented the games whip system, which was to introduce some new gameplay that was not possible on the NES. As the enemy and boss programmer, Ueno conceived some rough ideas, earlier bosses were designed to be easier so that players could discover weak points and effective weapons without retrying

Super Castlevania IV
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North American SNES box art

39.
GameRankings
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GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games, GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive. Similar websites include GameStats, Metacritic, MobyGames, and TopTenReviews, GameRankings collects and links to reviews from other websites and magazines and averages specific ones. While hundreds of reviews may get listed, only the ones that GameRankings deems notable are used for the average, Scores are culled from numerous American and European sources. The site uses a grade for all reviews in order to be able to calculate an average. However, because not all use the same scoring system. When a game has accumulated 20 total reviews, it is given a ranking compared to all games in the database. The current highest rated game is Super Mario Galaxy, with 97. 64%, there are specific rules that GameRankings follows to determine which review sites are used in calculating a games overall score. From the GameRankings Help page, they are, Sites must have at least 300 archived reviews for a multi-system/multi-genre sites, Sites must publish a minimum of 15 reviews a month. Sites must be visually appealing and look professional, Sites must review a variety of titles. Sites must have a domain name with professional hosting. Site reviews must be well written, Sites must conduct themselves in a professional manner. However, some sites that follow these rules are not included and these are the top 20 games with best scores on the site. GameRankings High Scores Matter To Game Makers, Too, The Wall Street Journal, things that suck about video game reviews, That Videogame Blog, April 2,2008

GameRankings
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GameRankings

40.
GamesRadar
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GamesRadar+ is an entertainment website primarily featuring video game related news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides. Since November 2014 the site has included a TV, films and sci-fi section, bringing in content from Futures entertainment brands Total Film. It is owned and operated in the UK and US by worldwide publisher Future plc, GamesRadar publishes numerous articles each day. Including official video game news, reviews, previews and interviews with publishers and developers, one of the sites features was their Top 7 lists, a weekly countdown detailing negative aspects of video games themselves, the industry and/or culture. They actually mark a negative score in almost everything, now, they are better known for lists of baddest depth segmented by genre, platform, or theme. These are divided into living lists, for consoles and platforms that are still active, the site launched a free iPhone app in January 2011, allowing users to browse their cheats and game guides. In 2007 the State of Texas filed a lawsuit against GamerRadars parent company Future plc, the lawsuit alleges that the site failed to include necessary disclosures and obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children. The owner of the other websited settled in March 2008, though the final disposition against Future plc is not public record, in November 2012 Keith Walker became the new publisher at Future and thus GamesRadar, looking to improve digital growth. By December 2012 the site underwent a new redesign including new layout, interface and regular features along with new staff members. Many of the members of TalkRadar went on to produce the Laser Time podcast network. In May 2014 it was reported that Future intended to close the websites of Edge, Computer and Video Games and their other videogame publications

GamesRadar
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GamesRadar

41.
Game Informer
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Game Informer is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, the publication is owned and published by GameStop Corp. the parent company of the video game retailer of the same name, who bought FuncoLand in 2000. Due to this, an amount of promotion is done in-store, which has been attributed to the success of the magazine. Game Informer has since become an important part of GameStops customer loyalty program, Power Up Rewards, Game Informer debuted in August 1991 as a six-page magazine. It was published two months until November 1994, when the magazine began to be released monthly. Since 2001 Game Informer has been published by Cathy Preston, who has working as part of the production team since 2000. It was under her that the publication became a part of GameStops customer loyalty program. In 2010, Game Informer became the 5th largest magazine in the US with 5 million copies sold, ahead of popular publications like Times, Sports Illustrated, by 2011, Game Informer had become the 3rd largest magazine in the US topping 8 million copies circulated. However, in 2014 it had fallen to 4th place with 6.9 million copies sold, recent figures still place the magazine at 4th place with over 7 million copies sold. The success of Game Informer has been attributed to its relationship with publishers. In each years April edition, Game Informer includes Game Infarcer, on the cover is Worlds #1 Pretend Magazine where it would ordinarily say Worlds #1 Video Game Magazine, and the word Parody is written on the bottom of each page. Game Infarcer articles are accredited to the fictional editor-in-chief Darth Clark, the heated responses to parody articles are often featured in later Game Informer issues. Game Informer has included four Sacred Cow Barbecues, similar in style to a celebrity roast, the occasion is meant to knock some of gamings most revered icons off their high and mighty pedestals. The first Sacred Cow Barbecues featured in issue 158, other issues featuring Sacred Cow Barbecues are,183,211, and 261. Sacred Cow Barbecues articles are considered controversial among those gamers who arent amused with their games being mocked, Game Informer Online was originally launched in August 1996, and featured daily news updates as well as articles. Justin Leeper and Matthew Kato were hired on in November 1999 as full-time web editors, as part of the GameStop purchase of the magazine, the site was closed around January 2001. Both Leeper and Kato were eventually placed on the staff of the magazine. GI Online was revived in September 2003, with a redesign and many additional features, such as a review database, frequent news updates

Game Informer
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The July 2011 issue cover
Game Informer
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Game Informer covers circa 2005

42.
MobyGames
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MobyGames is a commercial website which catalogs video games both past and present. As of October 2016, this includes over 200 gaming platforms and over 114,000 games, the site is supported by banner ads and by users paying to become patrons. The MobyGames database contains information on games and the people. Some individual developer profiles have biographical information, content is added on a volunteer crowdsourced basis, with all items tracked to a non-anonymous user account. The most commonly used sources are game packaging and manual or the game itself, registered users can rate and review any game entry, and the scores are aggregated into a single value. Users can create game have lists and want lists, which may be made public. This can generate another list of available for trade with other users. The site has an integrated forum, each listed game can have its own subforum. MobyGames was founded on March 1,1999, by Jim Leonard, Brian Hirt, Leonard had the idea of sharing information about electronic games with a larger audience. The database began with entries for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows games, on its second birthday, MobyGames started supporting other platforms, initially the leading consoles of the time such as the PlayStation, with older systems added later. MobyGames was nominated for a Webby Award for Best Games-Related Website by the International Academy of Digital Arts, in mid-2010, MobyGames was sold by its founders to GameFly for an undisclosed amount. As this was announced to the community post factum, a few major contributors left in protest. On December 18,2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs, upon assuming control of the site, Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel. Support for arcade coin-operated games was added in January 2014

MobyGames
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MobyGames' old official logo

43.
Castlevania (1986 video game)
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Castlevania, known in Japan as Akumajou Dracula, is an action-platformer video game developed and published by Konami for the Family Computer Disk System video game console in Japan in September 1986. It was ported to cartridge format and released in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System in May 1987 followed by a European release in 1988, the game takes place in the year 1691 where players control Simon Belmont who is tasked with defeating the vampire Dracula. It was re-released for the Family Computer in cartridge format in 1993 and it is the first game in Konamis Castlevania video game series, it was followed by two more NES games titled Castlevania II, Simons Quest and Castlevania III, Draculas Curse. A fourth game, retelling the events of the original, was released for the Super NES, Castlevania was positively received and financially successful. It is considered an NES classic by PC World, while Nintendo Power, IGN ranked it 19 among their favourite NES games. Castlevania puts players in control of Simon Belmont as he travels through Count Draculas castle, Simon battles numerous bosses along his way, including Frankensteins monster, Igor, a pair of Mummy Men, the Phantom Bat, Queen Medusa, the Grim Reaper, and Count Dracula himself. Simon encounters Dracula in his lair and defeats him and he escapes the castle as it crumbles apart and credits roll. The credits feature names in homage to classic horror film actors such as Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Max Schreck. Castlevania uses platform gameplay and is divided into six blocks of three each, for a total of 18 stages. Simon can move, jump, crouch, climb stairs, when the player presses the button to crack the whip, there is a short delay before Simon actually does so. The player begins the game with three lives, and must complete the current block of stages before a timer runs out. Simon has a meter, which decreases whenever he is attacked by an enemy or projectile, if the meter is fully depleted, he falls into a pit, or the timer reaches zero. Hidden food items restore health, and bonus lives are earned at certain score thresholds. A boss character must be defeated at the end of block in order to advance to the next one. Throughout the game, the player can find and use various backup weapons, however, only one such weapon can be carried at a time, and it is lost if the player loses a life. Backup weapons require hearts for their use, which can be found or taken from defeated enemies, other hidden items include point bonuses, temporary invincibility, whip upgrades, instant destruction of all on-screen enemies, and double/triple use of the backup weapon. When all lives are lost, the player may continue from the start of the block in which the game ended, Akumajō Dracula was developed and published by Konami for the Family Computer Disk System in 1986. Castlevania was one of the first major platform games on the NES and its release coincided with the 90th anniversary of Bram Stokers Dracula

Castlevania (1986 video game)
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North American NES box art

44.
Vampire Killer
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Vampire Killer, known as Akumajō Dracula in Japan, is a platform-adventure game produced by Konami and released in 1986 for the MSX2 computer platform in Japan and Europe. It was in development around the time as the Nintendo Entertainment System game Castlevania. The MSX2 version of Akumajō Dracula was released in Japan on October 30,1986 and it was the first Castlevania game released in Europe. It was never released in North America, in contrast to the more traditional platform gameplay of the NES Castlevania, the MSX Vampire Killer was instead a more open-ended platform game. The games non-linear design had a structure to Metroid released that same year. Vampire Killer is seen as unique in the early Castlevania series for containing several features that werent seen in games that were intended to be remakes of the original game. For example, to progress in the game, it is necessary to acquire skeleton keys hidden in the rooms within the games castle. Other keys also have to be found to open treasure chests containing items, such as shields for protection. Merchants can be found along the way, selling items to the player, while containing considerably different gameplay than the original Castlevania, both games share most of the same background settings, enemies and music. The unique gameplay features from Vampire Killer were reintroduced to the Castlevania series with Castlevania II, Simons Quest in 1987 and Castlevania, Symphony of the Night in 1997. As with many other MSX titles such as Metal Gear and Contra, the action takes place one screen at a time in a fashion similar to the original Legend of Zelda for the NES

Vampire Killer
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European box art

45.
Haunted Castle (video game)
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Haunted Castle, known as Akumajō Dracula in Japan, is the first arcade game in the Castlevania series, released by Konami in 1988. It was later re-released on the PlayStation 2 exclusively in Japan, the game follows the vampire hunter Simon Belmont as he goes to rescue his wife Selena from Dracula. Haunted Castle is a platform game with six levels, which are played through in a linear progression. The player controls the character, whose primary mode of attack is via his whip. He must fight various enemies which consist partially of skeletons, zombies, fishmen, by destroying certain enemies, he can switch his weapon to a more powerful spiked mace or sword. In addition, various sub-weapons can be obtained which provide different means of attack which consist of bombs, boomerangs, stopwatches, crosses, hearts are collected to use each of these sub-weapons. The player can carry one sub-weapon at a time. Each of Haunted Castles six levels conclude with a boss fight, there are a several notable music tracks in Haunted Castle that have been reused in other Castlevania games. The well-recognized Bloody Tears is used in game as the theme for Stage 3. It is also part of the Akumajo Dracula Medley that appears in Konamis Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 3, clockworks Beat, which plays during Stage 5, was remixed in Castlevania, Dawn of Sorrow under the name Underground Melodies. Japanese game publisher Hamster re-released the Japanese version of Haunted Castle for the PlayStation 2 in May 2006 as part of the Oretachi Geasen Zoku Sono series and this game port was not released outside Japan

Haunted Castle (video game)
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Japanese arcade flyer

46.
Castlevania: The Adventure
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Castlevania, The Adventure, known as Dracula Densetsu in Japan, is a platform game released for the Game Boy in 1989. It is the first Castlevania title for the system, Castlevania, The Adventure was re-released in color as part of the Konami GB Collection compilations in Japan and Europe. A remake titled Castlevania, The Adventure ReBirth was released as a WiiWare game for the Wii, set a century before the events of the original Castlevania, the player controls an ancestor of Simon Belmont named Christopher Belmont who goes on a quest to defeat Dracula. The game consists of four stages, and unlike other Castlevania games, there are no sub-weapons, the player has three lives, after which the player must restart the level. Weapons can be upgraded, such as the whip into the chain whip and flame whip, there are no stairs, unlike other Castlevania games. At the end of level, there is a primary evil to confront. Players can utilize crystals, hearts, and crosses of gold, there is also a point counter, and at 10,000 points, a player receives an extra life, and also receives one for every 20,000 points after that. Each stage also has a limit in which to complete the level. Castlevania, The Adventure received mixed reviews, the game was regarded difficult at times, with long levels and only three lives before playing the second cycle. The graphics were thought to be competent, the music well-composed with memorable tunes, IGN said it had a basic design, none of the series staple bosses, and nothing original. Game Informers Tim Turi felt that it was back by its technical limitations. A series of books were released in 2005 by IDW Publishing called Castlevania, The Belmont Legacy

Castlevania: The Adventure
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North American box art

47.
Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth
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Castlevania, The Adventure ReBirth is a side-scrolling action platform game developed by M2, and released by Konami for the Wii in 2009 as a WiiWare title. It is currently available in Japan, North America, Europe, based on the 1989 Game Boy title Castlevania, The Adventure, it is the third game in M2s ReBirth series, following Gradius ReBirth and Contra ReBirth. The setting of the game is a century before the original Castlevania title, where the controls a ancestor of Simon Belmont named Christopher Belmont. The Adventure ReBirth consists of six areas that the player has to complete in order to finish the game, toward the end of each area is a boss the player has to defeat before advancing to the next stage. The players main weapon for attacking in-game enemies is a whip, the last upgrade lets the player shoot fire from Christophers whip for a short duration. Unlike the original Adventure title for the Game Boy, there are sub-weapons which are powered with items called hearts, there are five sub-weapons and each has a different use. The games soundtrack was composed by Manabu Namiki, who worked on the titles in the ReBirth series. The music consists of remixes of previous Castlevania tracks, the official album was released on March 24,2010 in a compilation with Contra ReBirths music. The Adventure ReBirth garnered positive reviews, achieving a Metacritic score of 78% based on 22 critic reviews, Game Informers Tim Turi praised its audio and noted that it was a better game than Castlevania, The Adventure though still felt it was unforgiving. In 2011, Robert Workman of GameZone ranked it as the 10th best Castlevania game and complimented Konami for making this game in light of Castlevania, Contra ReBirth Gradius ReBirth Official website Official website

48.
Castlevania Chronicles
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Castlevania Chronicles, released in Japan as Castlevania Chronicle, Akumajō Dracula, is a platform video game developed by Konami for the PlayStation. It is a port of a game released for the Sharp X68000 home computer in 1993 as simply Akumajō Dracula. This Castlevania Chronicles port adds a number of features, including an Arranged Mode for new players and it was made available for download via the PlayStation Network as a PSone Classic on December 18,2008. Akumajō Dracula is a based on Castlevania, with a completely new engine designed to take advantage of the Sharp X68000 hardware. The entire game is updated, including familiar stages that have been redesigned. It contains all of the items and sub-weapons from the original game, as well as an exclusive rare item known as the laurel. This game is notable for its high difficulty level. Like the original Castlevania game, hidden items worth points and hidden 1-ups will appear throughout the game if the player ducks or stands in particular portions of a level, another notable feature is the multiple loops after the game is completed. Previous Castlevania games had increased difficulty for the second playthrough. An increased amount of damage taken from enemies in levels as well as new enemy placement. This game, however, has as many as six additional playthroughs with each one becoming more difficult than the last. Completing Arrange Mode also unlocks special features including an art gallery as well as a Time Attack Mode, exclusive to the U. S. and European versions of Chronicles, the art gallery features artwork by Ayami Kojima for Chronicles and Castlevania, Symphony of the Night. The Time Attack Mode allows the player to race through any stage, complete with a time meter, the music for the X68000 game contains a variety of new arrangements of familiar tunes from the series as well as brand new compositions altogether. Before each game, the player is given a choice between three different sound modules, the X68000s FM Synthesizer, MIDI Roland LA and MIDI Roland GS. While the soundtrack will remain the same throughout the game regardless of which sound module is chosen, sōta Fujimori, staff composer for the Konami Corporation in Japan, performed all new arrangements of the soundtrack for Castlevania Chronicles Arrange Mode. In the Japanese Chronicles, unlike the US and European versions, a code must be entered to reach it in either mode in the U. S. and European versions, while the Japanese version only requires one to be entered in Arrange Mode. Audio-wise, the Japanese version of Chronicles had slowdown issues with the music playback and these were fixed for the U. S. and European releases. The PlayStation re-release, Castlevania Chronicles, expanded more to the X68000 game

Castlevania Chronicles
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Castlevania Chronicles

49.
Castlevania Legends
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Castlevania Legends, released in Japan as Akumajō Dracula, Dark Night Prelude is the third and final Castlevania title released for the original Game Boy. It was released in Japan on November 27,1997 and in North America on March 11,1998, as with many Game Boy titles after 1994, Legends has some enhancements when played on the Super Game Boy. A player starts with three lives, after which the game is over, a player may continue from the beginning of the last stage they were in. There is also a Hit score showing how many enemies have been defeated in each stage, like other Castlevania games, striking candles will cause items to appear. However, unlike most other Castlevania titles, the traditional subweapons are replaced with five unique magic spells called Soul Weapons, hearts are used as currency to acquire weapons. Sonia can also enter a Burning Mode, where she becomes invincible, moves faster, the story begins in Transylvania in the year 1450. In the game, Sonia Belmont is the first Belmont to confront Dracula and she also meets Alucard who seeks revenge against his father Dracula. After Draculas defeat, he swears to Sonia that as long as there is evil in the world, he will be resurrected, the game was also the first game in the series timeline until Lament of Innocence. IGN called the one of the Game Boys cult classics despite the portable systems limitations. GameSpy called the music disappointing, as the previous two Game Boy Castlevania games were praised for their music. Game Informers Tim Turi felt that the game was lacking compared to Castlevania. Longtime Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi removed the game from the series timeline and he has stated that Legends remains something of an embarrassment for the series. If only that development team had the guidance of the team of the series. Sonia was one of the leads in the Dreamcast game Castlevania, Resurrection

50.
Castlevania (1999 video game)
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It was released in North America on January 26,1999, in Japan on March 11,1999, and in Europe on May 14,1999. Castlevania is the first 3D game in the Castlevania series, the player selects one of the games protagonists to control, Carrie Fernandez, a young orphan gifted with magic powers, or Reinhardt Schneider, the whip-wielding heir to the Belmont clan. Carrie and Reinhardt set out on a quest to stop Count Draculas impending return to power after a century of dormancy, the characters travel to and explore Draculas grand estate in their mission to defeat the count and his horde of undead minions. Castlevania, like most of its predecessors, is primarily an action-adventure, the Japanese logo for the game include the words real action adventure in English. Combat is slightly more complex than in older entries, a basic targeting and lock-on system has been implemented. Players have the use of both an attack and a close-quarters attack. Each weapon has strengths and weaknesses, for example, the Cerberus hounds can outrun Carries orbs, and Reinhardt must jump to land blows when fighting the vampire in the Castle Keep. Both characters can acquire sub-weapons, of only one can be used at a time. In past Castlevania titles they were powered by red hearts, the sub-weapons are series mainstays, the axe, knife, cross, and holy water. A large part of the challenge is also based on jumping from platform to platform while avoiding environmental hazards such as enemies. Platforms are usually stationary, but some may rotate out from under the player, move through the environment like a rail shooter, there are also some invisible platforms that either afford players a strategic advantage or lead to hidden items. Castlevania also includes elements from the horror game genre. In addition to the trappings and narrative devices of Gothic horror, players are placed in situations that may evoke feelings of stress, anxiety. Players may be trapped in caged fights with monsters, such as the battle with the Cerebrus hounds in the Villa when the screen darkens to near-black. Some caged battles are timed, such as the battles in the Duel Tower level. Vampires are also often fought in caged environments, with the complication that they can latch onto Carrie. If the player doesnt break free by rapidly rotating the control stick, unless a specific item is used to recover, the game becomes exponentially more challenging. Castlevania also features two other survival horror sequences, In the Villas maze garden, players must follow Malus through the labyrinthine hedges while strong, in the Castle Center, players must carefully carry the magic nitro item through an obstacle course to its destination